22 rules

1. Never say something is ‘not possible’ – unless something is against the laws of nature, don’t say something is not possible. Most things are possible – you just need to be resourceful enough.

2. Only take advice from people who have achieved what you want to achieve – you can take advice from whoever you want but there’s a big difference between getting advice from someone who has learnt the theory of how to achieve something and someone who has already achieved it.

3. You’re the most confident that you’re right when you’re just starting out – so be careful when you’re learning something new. The Dunning-Kruger effect sums this up best.

4. Always be learning – your success will be determined by what you learn, how much you learn, and how well you execute on what you learn.

5. Execute fast and then adjust – learning is great but the key to professional growth is being able to execute quickly on what you learn, learn from the execution and then adjust.

6. Learn during ‘dead’ time – the more time you spend learning the more you’ll learn. So take advantage of ‘dead’ time (like driving a car or walking the dog) with audio education.

7. Learn from non-traditional sources – try to find a practitioner and learn directly from them. Podcasts, online courses and seminars are some of the best places to get the knowledge you need to get to the next stage.

8. Nothing beats experience – there’s a reason experience is so valuable. It’s because things rarely work exactly the way you learnt about them.

9. Be humble – you’re probably wrong at least 20% of the time, you just don’t know which 20%. So don’t be too confident that you’re right when there’s probably a better way of doing pretty much everything.

10. There’s always someone hungrier than you – so make sure that you’re always driving yourself to be better every single day.

11. Surround yourself with people who drive you to be better – the people you choose to surround yourself with have a bigger impact on your professional growth than anything else so make sure you’re surrounded by people that drive you to be better.

12. Your drive is your most precious resource – it’s what’s going to make you push yourself outside of your comfort zone, try new things and overcome obstacles. Be aware of where your drive comes from and figure out how to create an environment that stokes it.

13. There’s always a smarter and better way to do things – so always challenge yourself to figure it out. It could be to do the same thing with less effort, it could be to get more out of the same effort, or it might be to take a new approach entirely.

14. Speed is everything – and if you think it’s not, just think about how much faster you would grow if you could learn and execute twice as fast as anyone else.

15. Everything takes time – that’s why it’s so important to move fast. Because even if you move fast, it’s still going to take a seriously long time.

16. Teach others – if you really want to become the best at something, you should teach others. Because it’s one thing to do something well but it’s another to teach someone else how to do it.

17. Always ask the question – most people are afraid to ask for what they want. You would be surprised at how many people will say ‘yes’ if you just ask for it. Just don’t be rude.

18. Be ruthless with your time – how well you invest your time today will determine how good your tomorrow is. Every hour that passes is an hour you’ve invested, one way or the other. If you live to 75, you will have lived for 28,000 days or 657,000 hours. Think about it.

19. Remove all obstacles slowing you down – learn to touch type, learn how to be more productive, use software to make you better. Figure out what is slowing you down unnecessarily and focus on overcoming each obstacle, one by one.

20. Be careful thinking of yourself as an expert – because it can make you complacent about pushing yourself to be even better.

21. You’re probably doing it longer, harder and slower than you should be – and if you’re in doubt, just compare yourself to Richard Branson, Bill Gates or Mark Zuckerberg.

22. There’s probably someone who can help you get there faster?

The 4 Ds of Spiritual Growth

Promise Yourself ... to be so strong that nothing can disturb your peace of mind. ...To be too large for worry, too noble for anger, too strong for fear, and too happy to permit the presence of trouble

Reflect on this pathway for meaningful growth:

DISCIPLINE 

To create change in our lives, we need to consistently focus on what we want.

DETACHMENT  

Practice the art of detached observation. Let go of automatic defenses and patterns.

DISCERNMENT 

Seek to discern the lower from the higher. What is self-serving and what is soul-inspired? Discernment carries no judgment. There are no goods and bads. Remain as a detached witness.

DHARMA 

"This is an East Indian word meaning "living your unique purpose." How do you find meaning and fulfillment in ways that are natural to you? How do you best serve and contribute to the world?

If you wish to travel far and fast, travel light. 

Take off all your envies, jealousies, unforgiveness, selfishness, and fears

Six things successful people are doing

1.  They Focus On Winning, But Accept The Losses

These people are all about winning, it’s what makes them successful.

They understand that with winning, comes failing, and when you’re aiming high, failure is definitely to be expected.

They do this, but instead of being paralyzed by the fear of failure..

They understand that more losing, means more winning.

Plain and simple.

2. Screw It Lets Do IT

They take action. They stop reading about something. They stop procrastinating. And they just go for it.

If you don’t take action, you won’t get any results.

3. Work Every Day

No matter what day it is, holiday , birthday, or vacation – successful people are always doing something.

Of course they enjoy their time, but they never “unplug” from the mission.

Whether that means getting creative inspiration, sending an email, thinking differently, or making a valuable connection --- successful people are always looking to move their mission forward.

4.  Surround Yourself With Winners

Of course you’ve heard the saying “you are the average of the 5 people you spend the most time with’

Winners notice things in people (skills, mindsets, connections) and so they do their best to connect and surround themselves with people who will have a beneficial impact.

They also add value to other people’s lives, and cut out toxic people. They only allow the people who help move the forward.

5.  Say “NO”, A LOT

They’re not successful because they said “yes” every time someone asked for a favor, or for their time…

Successful people are busy, and more importantly, they keep themselves busy with the right things.

6. Plan The Day Ahead..

Each evening, map out what you are going to accomplish the next day.

This causes you to wake up with clarity and purpose, and frees up your energy to execute your tasks.

2020, the year we will celebrate all wins

Along the way, we forget to celebrate those tiny wins. Instead, we get distracted by the day-to-day problems, the emotional roller coaster, and the grind

What kind of wins should we celebrate? Every possible positive step.  Every last one. Each of those victories compounds into the overall goal. When we overlook them, or worse, fail to recognize them within our team, we lose out on the opportunity to build positive morale and momentum. In any business, morale and momentum are our most valuable assets because we're building something out of nothing — and the only fuel to make that work is optimism. How Should We Celebrate Tiny Wins? More than anything, with recognition. We need to stop and thank the people who put in the work, and that includes ourselves. In the formative years, so much of what we do is incredibly thankless because often, we're breaking things more than we're fixing them. Going day after day with that kind of pace is brutal, which is why we have to stop and recognize every win that we do make, to give us fresh energy and enthusiasm to get back in the slog. Think about it as refilling the gas tank, which has a giant frigging hole in the bottom as we're driving this car! So treat recognition like compensation? Absolutely!  The only thing worse than being paid a salary for hard work is doing it without and recognition or appreciation. Everyone appreciates a high five. It motivates the team and reminds folks that when the next impossible project comes up, it won't go totally unnoticed.

For 2020, DITCH THAT LIST

Why it’s time to ditch the to-do list:

#1 They don’t account for how long something will take.

Let’s be real. You’re really bad at gauging the time required to complete the task. As a result, we all put more things on our list than we are capable of doing.

#2 They Lack Clarity

There is no difference between urgent and important. There are no time boundaries. And we tend to “do” the urgent tasks, and put off the most important ones.

#3 They Lack Schedule

Unless you’re a badass, your to-do list is probably just a set of randomly gathered tasks in no order.

When you start your workday, you usually pick the ones based on your current mood.

And when there is no schedule, you’re more than likely to start switching between a few…

This also leads to procrastination…

Overall, the To Do List gives you the illusion of progress and accomplishment.

But I believe that:

To Do Lists make you prioritize the wrong stuff and make you less organized in the long run.

But planning and productivity are such an important ingredient in success…

What to do?

Schedule Everything Rigorously.

Be a professional. Write down your tasks, and dedicate time to them.

And stick to that schedule.

Give Yourself Tight Deadlines

The longer your deadline, the more likely you are to waste time and procrastinate.

Prioritize

Schedule your most important tasks in the morning.

Start your day by doing your most important thing, and use that momentum to carry you through the rest of your day.

Be Real With Yourself

Don’t overwork yourself. Don’t schedule more tasks than you can handle.

Hard work has nothing to do with productivity.

Your journey to success begins with you prioritizing, and executing what’s important for you.

The worst thing you can do is burn yourself out.

Your health and energy will take you everywhere you want to go

Where are you, exactly?

We all spend way too much time worrying about the future and what we are supposed to be doing.

We are stuck in a trap that lets us believe we should be exactly where we think we should be…

Where we have everything figured out, and we’re on the top of the mountain, basking in all the glory of life and our success.

What we forget is:

We are exactly where we need to be in life.

If something hasn’t happened for you, it just means you’re not ready.

It means you’re getting the experience you need so you can kill it when you are ready.

That is, if you ever are ready.

And you will be ready IF you do this one thing:

Learning.

It’s a matter of constantly learning what part of you is missing that will allow you to achieve everything you want in life.

The major lesson is to be patient.

You have your whole life to become and create.

AS long as you’re aware, moving forward, and learning…

You’re on exactly the right path.

It’s absolutely okay to not have “life figured out.”

It’s easy to see others success, compare yourself, and feel bad.

But instead, you should realize that as long as you’re taking action, learning, and moving forward:

You’re exactly where you need to be in life.

The list of “patient people at the top of their game” (and some great failures):

At age 23, Oprah was fired from her first reporting job.

At age 24, Stephen King was working as a janitor and living in a trailer.

At age 27, Vincent Van Gogh failed as a missionary and decided to go to art school.

At age 28, J.K. Rowling was a suicidal single parent living on welfare.

At age 30, Harrison Ford was a carpenter.

At age 30, Martha Stewart was a stockbroker.

Christian Dior founded Dior at the age of 41.

Jerry Baldwin founded Starbucks at 42.

Alan Rickman gave up his graphic design career and landed his first movie role at age 42.

Steve Carrel got his big break at age 43.

Stan Lee didn’t release his first big comic book until he was 43.

Samuel L. Jackson didn’t get his first major movie role until he was 46.

Charles Darwin published The Origin Of Species at age 50.

Morgan Freeman landed his first major movie role at age 52.

Kathryn Bigelow won the Academy Award for Best Director when she made The Hurt Locker at age 57.

Winston Churchill struggled in politics and was defeated in every election until the age of 62 when he became Prime Minister of the UK.

Colonel Sanders founded KFC at age 65.

This game of life is a marathon, not a sprint.

You CAN do the long-distance run.